A student team from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology(BUET) recently posted a video of their entry for the Student Ideas Competition for the Tejgaon Airport Site organised by the BUET Alumni. The video shows a great technique for design charettes; utilising one sheet of large format paper to brainstorm issues, ideas, and create small vignettes depicting the main ideas and principles.

On the 22nd January 2015, Prof. Zhu Yu-Fan from Tsinghua University will be talking about creativity and longevity in the Chinese landscaping industry at the Hong Kong University, Shanghai Study Centre in Shanghai. The event is in Mandarin and will have simitaneous translation, there is a limited number of 150 seats and an email RSVP is required to rsvp@changescape.org. Changescape is an informal, non profit and grass roots meeting of landscape architects, architects, developers and other trades related to the landscape, planning & architectural industry. Hope to see you there.

Every year, the American University Architecture School Rankings are released. This year has seen a shift in the rankings for Undergraduate and Graduate programs. With LSU taking top spot in Undergraduate from Pennsylvania State and Cornell rising to third swapping places with Purdue (dropping from 3rd to 7th). In the graduate program rankings sees the University of Pennyslyvania rising up the rankings from 4th to 2nd and Cornell also rising from 5th to 3rd, however Kansas State University has dropped down the rankings to 8th from 2nd.

The rankings by hiring firms also look at the various skills of recent graduates including Communication, Design, Research, Computer, Cross Disciplinary and Sustainable design. Harvard, University of Pennyslyvania and LSU constantly rank in the top 3 for all six skill rankings. For more information purchase your copy (pdf & print) of American University Architecture School Rankings from Design Intelligence.

UPDATE | SEPTEMBER 2014
The ‘Olympicopolis’ Design Competition is now open with the organisers seeking “a multi-disciplinary design team of the highest quality, which can realise the project’s objectives and relate to the client and the partner ensemble.”. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Culture and Education Quarter is a multi-faceted design challenge, drawing on skills in masterplanning, architecture and public realm design, along with planning, engineering and cost consultancy.

Expressions of Interest by 2 pm UK time October 17, 2014. This is a two-stage, international design competition. Initially Expressions of Interest are sought. Following the first stage, five teams will be shortlisted for the second stage.